Democrats optimistic about retaking state legislative seats

Democrats lost more than 1,000 state legislative seats nationally over the past decade, but Jessica Post sees that trend turning around in November.

Democrats have already flipped 44 Republican-held seats since President Trump took office, Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said on The Chronicle’s “It’s All Political” podcast. Republicans have returned the favor by flipping six Democratic-held seats.

While Republicans hold the majority in nearly two-thirds of state legislatures, Democrats are a total of 17 seats away from flipping eight state senate chambers, Post said. Now, Democrats hold 26 chambers nationally.

While the plight of state-level Democrats has long been dire, “it is in some ways better than folks might expect,” said Post, whose organization is focused on electing Democrats to state legislatures.

Post said her committee’s budget has roughly doubled to $35 million over the past two years, as more Democrats grow concerned about Republicans passing tighter state restrictions on issues like abortion rights and gun control.

The dome of the California state Capitol in Sacramento.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

Most Democratic candidates for state legislative seats who have prevailed in this cycle have used the same strategy, Post said: They talked about local issues, not Trump.

She pointed to Democrat Linda Belcher, who won a special election in a Kentucky legislative district that Trump won by 50 points in 2016. Belcher talked about the poor condition of the district’s roads, not national issues.

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of “It’s All Political,” The Chronicle’s political podcast. Catch it here: bit.ly/2LSAUjA

He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy — which he discussed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” after being told he couldn’t say the word “balls” on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!